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Tuesday, October 28, 2014

The CDC has removed fever from the Ebola Case Definition, and replaced it with the a more nebulous definition of "Elevated body temperature or subjective fever or symptoms".
The CDC has also added "Fatigue" to the case definition.

Here is the relevant part of the prior case definition:

Person Under Investigation (PUI)A person who has both consistent symptoms and risk factors as follows:

Clinical criteria, which includes fever of greater than 38.6 degrees Celsius or 101.5 degrees Fahrenheit, and additional symptoms such as severe headache, muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, or unexplained hemorrhage; AND

epidemiologic risk factors within the past 21 days before the onset of symptoms, such as contact with blood or other body fluids or human remains of a patient known to have or suspected to have EVD; residence in—or travel to—an area where EVD transmission is active*; or direct handling of bats or non-human primates from disease-endemic areas.

Here is the relevant part of the current case definition:

Person Under Investigation (PUI):
A person who has both consistent signs or symptoms and risk factors as follows:

Other important changes have also been made to loosen up CDC's Ebola case definition; we will update this post as time permits:

UPDATE 1: The CDC's new Ebola case definition greatly increase the category of persons who may be forcefully quarantined to anyone who was in proximity of an Ebola case even if the Ebola victim was not actively showing symptoms at the time of proximity. (more to follow)

UPDATE2: After a more detail reading, the CDC has greatly increased the at risk Ebola category to include the following:1) Direct contact (hand shake) with Ebola victim 21 days PRIOR to symptom onset2) Airborne contact, ie even "brief proximity" (such as being in the same room for a brief period of time) with an Ebola victim AFTER their symptom onsetAny person who meets those two above definitions and in the subject eyes of an examiner has any "signs" of concern such as elevated body temperature (98.7 deg F) is now defined as a "Person Under Investigation" for Ebola. And as such, that person is subject to forceful quarantine